Ferrara Bakery & Cafe
195 Grand Street | Little Italy | built 1900
Open on the map3 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1892
Antonio Ferrara opens Caffe A. Ferrara at 195 Grand Street
Antonio Ferrara, a businessman and community leader whose name appeared often in the Italian-language dailies, opened his cafe at 195 Grand Street in 1892. He meant it as a place where he and artist friends could have coffee and play the card game skopa after the theater or opera. Place Matters records that Enrico Caruso was one of the earliest celebrity visitors and especially liked the cookies and cakes.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1932
Pietro Lepore, a stowaway who arrived in 1930, marries into the Ferrara business
Pietro Lepore, Antonio Ferrara's nephew, reached New York in 1930 by stowing away on a ship carrying a circus troupe, posing as a clown. He worked for his uncle, and in 1932 he married Ida, daughter of Ferrara's partner Enrico Scoppa. Place Matters adds that living quarters were above the store at the start of the century, and that the upstairs was later offered for meetings.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1937
Pietro Lepore takes over Ferrara's after Antonio Ferrara dies and builds its torrone mail-order trade
After Antonio Ferrara died in 1937, Pietro Lepore bought out Enrico Scoppa's interest and took control of the business. A sugar purchase made before wartime rationing protected the company, and during World War II Lepore began shipping torrone, a dairy-free nougat that packs and ships easily, to Italian American soldiers overseas. That grew into the cafe's mail-order division. Lepore also organized the radio campaign with Phil Rizzuto promising "Heaven in the Heart of Little Italy."
Source: Internet Archive
Further reading
- Ferrara Bakery and CafeWikipedia
- Ferrara Bakery and CafePlace Matters
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